After such a tremendous victory at the battle of Jericho, this chapter surprisingly to say the opposite. When we read of what happen in Joshua 7, we will see a real contrast to what we have read so far. It is such an agony defeat that happen to the Israelites. What had been a tremendous victory, now have quickly been replaced by a striking defeat. What happen to the Israelites back then, is also what may happen in today’s life - and i’m talking about our life spiritually. This is reality: at one point we may have a spiritual success, and the next step, we find ourselves on a spiritual failure and despair. It happens because of our sinful nature. This topic that we are going to stress on in this chapter, might be something that makes us uncomfortable, or uneasy, but the Bible notes such event, which is for teaching us so that we may live a life pleasing Him, and to stay awake to guard against our weakness: our flesh desire.
This passage (Joshua 7) opens with a small but ominous word “but” which put a contrast with the preceding chapter, particularly on the last verse (v 27). This word was put there, to show a negative context to what happen next. It tells us that what happen next is really undesirable, and “not right”. The text noted that the Israelites acted unfaithfully in regard to the devoted things. The original meaning of devoted here, would also mean things that under the ban, or for the purpose for destruction. God has commanded and warned them in Joshua 6:17-19 to not covet and keep any of the things from the Canaanites. They should keep yourselves from those things that are devoted for destruction, lest it will bring destruction to whoever took it and bring trouble to the whole nation of Israel. God has warned them, didn’t He? Earlier in the Bible, when the Israelites were in the desert, God has also told them of what they must and must not do when they have come to the land of Canaanites: they shall not covet the silver of the gold or to take it for yourselves, lest you be ensnared by it, for it is an abomination to the LORD your God (Deuteronomy 7:25-26). God knew that if they took it, those things will be a trap for them; it will ensnared them, making it an idol to them; it will take their hearts and attention and not God anymore. It’s just like a fishing trap: to a fish, those things looks very delicate in the eyes; it seems very nice, but in fact it is a bait that would bring destruction for the fish, isn’t it? That’s why God warned them.
Here a man named Achan had taken some of the forbidden treasures and hid them in his tent, but the Bible noted that God’s anger is toward the whole Israel as a nation. God held the whole nation accountable for the act of one man and so God withdraw His blessing and protection, until the matter was dealt with. What Achan did was a sin as he disobey what God has commanded, and God was furious. Here we learn some lessons: First, that sin is always taken seriously by God because He is a Holy God. Even though Christ died for our sins and stands at God’s right hand as our Advocate and Intercessor, God does not and cannot treat sin in our lives lightly. There is a price for our sin.
Second, sin may impacts not just ourselves, but also everyone; and on the same account, sin always has consequences. A clear example will be that because of one man sin, all the humanity receive the consequences which is death. All man will die because of sin. Here in the story because of Achan’s sin, all Israelites receive the consequences, that the Lord God remove his protection because His anger is burnt against such sin. God used Israel as a whole also as an illustration to teach us the truth for being His people. Israel was used as a warning for the church, so that we learn that we cannot make any progress with the Lord, with known sin in our lives (1 Corinthians). Notice on how Achan fell to such thing (Joshua 7:21): first He saw, then he coveted (or desire it in his heart), and he took them. Does that sounds familiar to us? Remember how man first sin (Genesis 3) ? The woman saw that the tree was good in the eye, and the woman started to desire to take the fruit from the tree, she wanted it, and then she took it and ate it; or what happen with David in 2 Samuel 11: David saw bathsheba bathing, then his desire comes, he wanted her, then he took her. This is how sin took into effect, the bible noted this to warn us to be careful for our desire in flesh. The bible warns us to stay focus and stay away from such deceit, that may divert our attention to a “delightful” bait instead of to trust and obey our maker, God himself, where the utmost beauty is in Himself.
Thirdly, what Achan did was hidden from Joshua’s eyes, but God knew crystal clear of what happened. In our lives, when we sin or disobey God, we may think that no one is looking and so no one knows, but hey! God knows! He is omniscient God, He is an All-Knowing God even to things hidden from others. Think about when there is police walking beside you, or a police car driving behind you, and you know it, i bet we will not speed, won’t we? or i don’t think anyone dare to steal in front of the police right? When you have your pastor visiting your house, will you behave inappropriately? most of us will behave right? why? because we put our respect to such person. Now, do we put not just our respect but also our hearts-desire to our Lord God? What we often forget is that He is a God of all knowing, i mean really: He is an All-Knowing God. We may know in our head (or knowledge) that God is always present, and He knows everything, but in day to day living our attitude or behaviour doesn’t tell so, does it? It is because at those moment, when our desire is in the flesh, we put our attention once again to our “bait”, to the “forbidden fruit” in the garden, to the shiny gold and silver that we found in Jericho. Let us be warned once again, and know that He is God that knows everything, and nothing is hidden from Him.
In each moment through our journey of life, once again God reminds us through this story for us to remember God of who He is: His Holy character, and His Holy purposes for us. After such defeat with Ai, God reminds Joshua to look on Israel’s position in relationship to God (v10-13). God told Joshua that Israel had sinned, and He asked Joshua to consecrate themselves. Just like Israelites, we often neglect to consistently examine ourselves before God. We put our focus on what we can achieve next, or our pride and glory to the goal ahead, but forget the most crucial thing in our lives: our relationship with God. How is our daily devotional with God? Do we spend time to pray earnestly everyday? Do we take a moment everyday to reflect on God's Word in relation to ourselves then praising and asking of God’s mercy and goodness? God knew that there is something wrong within Israelites, and God asked Joshua to remove what hinders them from the relationship with God. The same to our lives today, God wants us to remove the sinful thing, our disobedience so that we may continue to enjoy the relationship with God. The Bible teaches us to repent from our sin, and not just repent, but to leave our old self, and to move towards Jesus.
We know the story continues with Achan and his son and daughters are stoned to death, and burned the treasures away. It seems like it is cruel, and there is no mercy at all, isn’t it? Didn’t Achan already confess what he did wrong? Why there was no forgiveness? That’s actually my first question when reading this passage. But we have to be reminded that our God is Holy: His love is a Holy love, His mercy is a holy mercy, His judgement is a holy judgement, His anger is a holy anger, His character is a holy character. What has happened is that God has given Achan “some times” to repent (but he didn’t want to). What Achan did is to confess when there is no other choice, it is too late for him. He has reminded the whole Israel of all the consequences if they did wrong (remember v17-19 above:it will bring destruction and trouble even to the nation itself, and Israel has tasted this, even because of the other problem: self-confidence). The same with the time that God has given us in this world, it is for us to keep walking in obedience to Him alone. Do we remember of what the Israelites did before they battle Jericho? They consecrate themselves before the LORD. Here, they neglect that: again this continues my point to the paragraph above: that it is important to consecrate before the LORD. The latin word “Coram Deo” means “in the presence of God”, a phrase from Christian theology which summarizes the idea of Christians living in the presence of, under the authority of, and to the honor and glory of God. In otherwords, in a Christian living, we ought to remember that every action that we take, we realise that we are doing it for God's name sake. You might want to read an article by R.C Sproul of What Does “coram Deo” means to get a better understanding of the word. If only Achan and his family lives a life “coram Deo”, If only Joshua and the Israelites remember to live a life “Coram Deo”, I’m sure God who is faithful will protect and bless them; and so are we, if only we always know and realise to live a life “coram Deo”, how good it will be, to taste and to enjoy such relationship with our Lord and Savior, to hear His every whisper, to obey what He speaks to us; and so once again: Do we want to spend time with Him everyday?
For every sin, there is a price that needs to be paid; but the price has been paid for us who believe that Jesus is the only Lord and Savior. Jesus died on the cross as a ransom for our sins, our response now is to repent from our sins, leave our sins behind, and move forward with Jesus as our saviour with the eyes looking on the cross, to spend time in relation with Him, and enjoy every moment in His presence. Let this passage written in history reminded us again of our sinful nature, and of God’s holy character - to have a consecrated life in every moment; to live a life “coram Deo”.
Coram Deo,
~ Paul Hartono
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